Moorestown, NJ – RunSignup announces the release of RaceDay Photos, the free race photo platform effective immediately. The system has been in beta since the summer, with hundreds of thousands of photos uploaded by hundreds of races. Suggestions made by beta-testing customers have helped shape the product.
“Having a free, simple platform for race day photos continues our efforts to make technology easy and accessible to every race,” said Bob Bickel, RunSignup Founder. “We consciously did not add a payment wall for photos because we believe races will quickly realize that the potential to connect with their participants and sponsors outweighs any income from glossy paper photos. 2017 is truly the year of Free Race Photos.”
The photo platform is free and unlimited for RunSignup registration customers. It includes:
- Upload or sync with SmugMug an unlimited number of photos with smart upload.
- Smart auto-bib tagging with Google Vision plus RunSignup filter algorithms
- Photos are tagged within minutes of uploading
- Filters for inappropriate content
- High Speed Manual Tagging and Crowdsource tagging
- Timer Finish Line Sync “Near Me” Tagging
- Social Sharing
- Management of Photos, with Multi-Location and multi-year capabilities
- Simple and Advanced Viewing and Searching
- Photo Widget to put Photos on any Website
- Watermark options for Race Logos and Sponsors
- Lookup by Bib, Name or Results
As part of the release in production, RunSignup has upgraded the infrastructure to handle over 500,000 photos per day, with the ability to scale higher as photos become a standard part of every race.
Unlike traditional photography systems or services, the RunSignup Photo Platform is a free and open platform that puts races in control of their content. Race directors can upload photos themselves, or they can give access to a photographer or timer to enable uploading and tagging of photos. This open architecture allows for races to hire professional photographers or get volunteers to upload photos. Multiple photographers can cover the course and each can upload to their location, allowing for simpler management for large races. Since photos can also be uploaded for past years, races and participants can catalog themselves over the years.
Other features of the RunSignup system will also take advantage of the Photo platform over the course of 2017, providing new ways for races to use photos. In addition to creating Sponsorship opportunities, photos also will be a part of the Email marketing system and offer races the ability to market to repeat participants. The new RaceDay Results platform will also increase the visibility of photos, as participants will be able to see photos across races in their profile and in the RaceJoy mobile app.
About RunSignup
RunSignup is the leading innovator of online tools for race registration, race day solutions, and running clubs. Services include RunSignup for registration, RunSignup Go for Race Day, RunSignup RD Go for Timers, RunSignup Clubs to enable membership management, and RaceJoy for mobile experiences. More than 10,000 race directors, timers, running club officers and running stores use these services today, including leading organizations like the Boilermaker Road Race, Crim Festival of Races, Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc., Fifth Third River Bank Run, Susan G. Komen Philadelphia, Night Nation, Mercedes Marathon, Kentucky Derby Festival, Leone Timing, KC Running Company, Compuscore Timing, Knoxville Track Club, Pikes Peak Road Runners, Gulf Coast Runners, Columbus Running Company, Playmakers Running Store and many more. In 2015, over 10,000 races used the system to register more than 2.7 million participants. In 2016 over 14,000 races will use the system to process over 4.3 million paid registrations. Services are free except for processing fees when conducting monetary transactions such as race registration or club membership renewal. RunSignup is founded by runners for runners, using technical capabilities to bring the power of cloud computing to benefit the running community. For more information, visit www.RunSignup.com.